Wednesday, June 22, 2011

FLORIDA DEATH PENALTY UNCONSTITUTIONAL?

THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE: WHITEY BULGER ARRESTED! The legendary boss of the Boston Mob, on the run for almost 16 years, was arrested in California last night. The NY TImes has the info here.

DOM is in Tampa for Buju's sentencing the Herald reports here.


Yes!
Says Federal Judge Jose' Martinez, because the Florida scheme for death allows a Judge and not a jury to sentence a defendant to death and does not require unanimity by the Jury. (In Florida a jury must be unanimous for conviction on stealing a lollipop, but not for sentencing someone to die. Lollipops require unanimity, death a mere majority.)

Your favourite Federal Blogger broke the decision and story on his blog. This being a quasi-state/quasi-federal issue he did not violate the borders between the blogs and cause another blog war similar to the clone wars (which as you will recall erupted when thousands of star systems seceded from the Galatic Republic and the small planet Naboo was blockaded.)

Here's the Palm Beach Post article on the decision.



Applying Ring, Judge Martinez held that the Florida scheme fell short of due process:
There are no specific findings of fact made by the jury. Indeed, the reviewing courts never know what aggravating or mitigating factors the jury found. It is conceivable that some of the jurors did not find the existence of an aggravating circumstance, or that each juror found a different aggravating circumstance, or perhaps all jurors found the existence of an aggravating circumstance but some thought that the mitigating circumstances outweighed them. ... After the jury's recommendation, there is a separate sentencing hearing conducted before the judge only. ... The defendant has no way of knowing whether or not the jury found the same aggravating factors as the judge. Indeed, the judge, unaware of the aggravating factor or factors found by the jury, may find an aggravating circumstance that was not found by the jury while failing to find the aggravating circumstance that was found by the jury. ... This cannot be reconciled with Ring.
The case is Evans v. McNeil, 08-14402-CIV-JEM. The petitioner was represented by Capital Collateral Regional Counsel.

If you open your window right now and listen closely that sound you hear is a dozen or so death penalty lawyers in Miami writing motions to declare the death penalty unconstitutional.

See You In Court.


23 comments:

  1. Not for nothing, but this kind of makes Judge Murphy, with all the recent hoopla, a visionary.

    He must be sitting back with a huge smile on his face.

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  2. I don't know that the particular judge you mentioned indeed has "17 female interns around him" but the implications of such a comment, if true, are not something I feel comfortable publishing.

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  3. my last comment relates to a comment I did not publish, not to the comment above at 3:31.

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  4. Well, the 17 female interns would have explained the huge smile on his face.

    But I suppose it is good you cleared up any possible confusion, which was sure to follow.

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  5. Hey Rumpole: what does joseph george have to say about not being nominated by jnc and more applicants sought? how many have applied?

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  6. Gotta love Rick Reilly. He wrote a piece on McIlroy and used the words: troglodyte, Cablinasian, and used the sentence "You can find somebody to Skype with in Fiji faster than you can find help at Home Depot.".

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  7. The Captain Reports:

    North of the Border .....

    There were a total of 17 applicants today to the JNC for the open Circuit Court seat as the result of Vic Tobin's resignation. The most notable names missing from the applicants is that not one single County Court Judge applied to the JNC.

    What does this say about the County Court Judges of Broward County? Do none of them feel like they are qualified to move up to the next level? Do they like the coziness of a County Court position so much that none of them could fathom leaving the comforts of Misdemeanors, Small Claims Court and PIP suits? In contrast, No less than six Dade County Court Judges applied for the open Circuit Court seats last month.

    Also, one familiar name of the 17 applicants: ASA Abbe Rifkin..

    Cap Out ....

    Cap Out ......

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  8. Such an elementary and simple premise yet also so sensible. That's a great decision.

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  9. To 4:32 p.m., the implications of such a comment is that the judge is a stud, which may make the judge quite proud, specially if he's an older guy.

    Wouldn't you be proud if the same comment was made about you? Or are you just a tad envious of a judge with such a harem?

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  10. Joe Centorino has been selected to lead Miami-Dade’s Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/22/2279613/veteran-prosecutor-tapped-to-head.html

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  11. "Miami-Dade", "Ethics" and "Public Trust" are oxymorons that can not coexist in the same sentence. Joe's challenge will be to change that.

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  12. Centerino's a good guy.In tRial against him years ago, a straight shooter.
    DS

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  13. The Fed. Judges opinion supports my previous posts on Murphy and Not giving the DEath Penalty.
    DS

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  14. fake matters & adelsteinThursday, June 23, 2011 7:06:00 AM

    We've been up all night. Our death penalty motions hit the mail by noon today.

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  15. The Captain Reports:

    The Big Bujaton gets ten years in the Big House - DOM is successful in getting gun charge dismissed saving his client 5 years.

    In other news, former Judge Adrien just won't go away. The 3rd DCA issued a ruling today Reversing the former jurist in a foreclosure action. Read the opinion and decide for yourself whether the attorney simply pulled a fast one on the Judge and/or whether Judge Adrien should have been more aware of what was going on and demanding just a little bit more from the homeowners' attorney before granting their Motion.

    From the opening paragraph of the opinion:

    "Finding no basis whatsoever for the entry of the April 2010 Order, we reverse. We further grant Washington Mutual’s motion for appellate attorneys’ fees and sanctions against the Debtors and their counsel for abusing the legal process, resulting in a
    drain of judicial resources and unnecessary litigation expenses."

    The closing paragraph:

    "Accordingly, we grant Washington Mutual’s motion for appellate
    attorneys’ fees and sanctions against both the Debtors and their attorney, Paul B. Woods, jointly and severally. See id.; § 57.105 Fla. Stat. Also, given the
    essentially fraudulent behavior of the Debtors, and the potentially unethical conduct of their ounsel, based upon and in furtherance of this behavior, we refer Paul B. Woods to the Florida Bar for its determination of whether professional discipline is warranted."

    http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/Opinions/
    3D10-1099.pdf

    Cap Out .....

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  16. RE Judge Adrien: Nobody is that dumb. There has got to be more to the story. debtor's attorney should be subject of criminal investigation.

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  17. Way to go Capital Collateral! You can make this world a better place!
    Thanks, Mr. Lenamon for all your hard work

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  18. 12:44: yes captial collateral - thank goodness for your wonderful work to ensure that the worst criminals in the world are able to escape custody and walk amongst us. Your courage in standing up for the most dispicable horrible criminals in the world against the tide of decent human civilization is to be congratulated. I love all of you so much.

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  19. Let's not get overly excited here. The Attorney General, Tea Bager that she is, will not take this lying down, so to speak. This will go all the way to the SCOTUS. And what pray tell, do you think they will think.

    We can only hope that Clarence Thomas will be brought up on Ethics charges by the House and put on trial by the Senate before this gets there. Oh I love to day dream.

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  20. TO 3:57:

    I'm proud to live in a country where everyone has their day in court and they are not prejudged by the crime they are alleged to have committed.

    In your world, people would be proving their innocence. Why don't you just leave the country and go the France if you don't believe in the constitution that you are sworn to uphold?

    I find your comments morally reprehensible in light of the fact that you obviously work in this adversarial system.

    Are you doing anything besides running your mouth off and collecting a paycheck? How are you involved or is it too much like expending energy and putting yourself out there?

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  21. To 3:57

    Shit for brains.

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  22. Hey, 3:57:

    It's despicable, not dispicable.

    Get yourself a dictionary at the same time you educate yourself that life in prison is not walking among us.

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